Thursday, July 26, 2012

Dear Music Directors...

I've received a lot of correspondence from music directors
since Jeffrey posted the FAQ
from the Words With Wings Workshop
site the other day. Here's a summing up
of the kinds of comments I'm getting:

"I'm really excited about using
Words with Wings book with my kids' choir.
I'm not sure how this would work with kids in the parish, though. My pastor feels, and I agree, that we have a
good thing going with our music program.
He relies on me to keep making it happen. Everyone is so busy, and it is all I can do
to get eleven kids together for a choir rehearsal"

I hear what this person (and many like him) are saying. If things are already on the right track, why
ruffle feathers in the parish? If the
music at Mass is already pretty good, why should we worry about getting more
kids involved, especially at the expense of other programs going on? Moreover, we already have a music director
(me) and things are going well.

Makes sense. Why fix
what doesn't appear to be broken.

But how many kids are really involved in the music
program? And how many kids participate
in your CCD program? If you compare the
two numbers, you'll see a huge disproportion.
I don't think it is because all of the other kids in the parish are
incapable of singing simple songs or chants, or incapable of learning a tiny
bit of music theory and a lot about the liturgy.

I have suggested to many that have written to me that they
talk with their pastors about broadening music education for all kids. The lessons in Words With Wings don't take much time. And even though there are so many things for
classroom teachers to do, isn't education on the music and the liturgy just as
important, if not more important, than some of the other activities planned for
classrooms? We have to be honest with
ourselves here, and quit blaming things on packed schedules.

As a music director, how can you help? And why should you?

Something that is hard for musicians to admit to themselves–
myself included – is that non-musicians can do a good job of things, too. In
fact, this is precisely how things used to work in the Catholic schools. There
was a lot of Ward lessons in classrooms the United States and beyond until the
1960s. The Ward curriculum was designed,
not for music specialists, but for classroom teachers to make part of there daily
work with the kids. Training was offered
every summer, and teachers would go get the training they needed for the
year. In fact, if you look at the Ward
Centre classes still offered at the Catholic University of America, you can see
that that is precisely how it works. You
go get the training in Ward I. Then you
can teach Ward I. Then you go back and
get the training in Ward II. Then you
can teach that, and so on.

So why isn't anyone teaching Ward anymore, not even in the
schools? Well, you might have a handful
of people trained, and a rare program or two that features some Ward
instruction, but the problem is, again, that the demands of today's culture and
today's classroom do not make room for music lessons every day. Ward was designed to be taught in the regular
classroom – every day – for eight years.

I did take time out from life and work and went through all of the Ward
training a few years back. The lessons I
learned are valuable, but if there is no place to apply them outside of my
choir rehearsal, how can they really make an impact? How can they do all they promise to do?

The Ward program of yesterday did make an impact. In workshop after workshop I do across the
country, there are people from a certain generation who come up to
me and say: "I remember this stuff
from school. I remember singing the
chants, and singing at Mass. I loved it. What happened to it all?"

What happened will never be entirely clear. Though they had the education, did all these
people join church choirs when they reached adulthood? Probably not – one reason being that because
during the 70s, there were few choirs left to join. And those that were formed were not singing
any of the music these people had learned in their early years. But that doesn't mean that their music education
wasn't valuable. All of these people still
have a sense of how music works in liturgy.
They remember it, and they value it to this day.

Wings author Wilko Brouwers has done what was long overdue
and seemed impossible… he has taken the best of this tried and true pedagogy
and updated it to fit today's schedules.
He has made it accessible to all, once again. In twenty short lessons, all children are given the opportunity to learn something they will carry with
them all of their lives.

Teachers who learn the program, even if they go into it
kicking and screaming, just may catch the bug, or at the very least, have to
admit a greater appreciation for the music that the GIRM says is to be given
pride of place after they've taught the twenty lessons. Parents who see children and teachers making
progress every week will become more invested in what is going on musically
in liturgy. And in the liturgies of the parish.
And music directors will have a greater pool of children to draw from
for their children's choirs in future – not to mention scholas down the road.

As music director, you can teach the Words With Wings curriculum
in your choir rehearsals. But since you
are the music go to person in your parish, you can go one step further in the
spirit of service. You can encourage pastors to schedule a workshop to bring classroom
teachers along. (Sometimes it is good to bring a neutral party in from outside
to do the dirty work, especially if you or your pastor fears some reticence).

You can attend the workshop – along with the teachers – to
let them and your pastor know that you will continue to be a resource for them.
You can help the teachers throughout the
year. Music and education programs don't
have to operate on separate planes anymore.

About the Chant Café

Catholic liturgical music is serious, solemn, transcendent, but Catholic musicians are never more fun and inspiring than when they are talking about what they love most. This is what happens at sacred music events around the world: the social and intellectual are critically important elements. The musicians (and music enthusiasts) at the Chant Café, a project of the Church Music Association of America, bring that sense of life and love to the digital world. As St. Augustine said, "Cantare amantis est."

Opinions expressed on the site are those of the respective writers.All content at the Chant Café is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, so please reproduce in sæcula sæculorum.